1955 Ferrari 750 Monza

While Scaglietti’s craftsmen hand-perfected the construction of the 750 Monza and its emblem can be found on the car’s haunches, its fundamental design was that of Enzo Ferrari’s son Dino. Yup, with the 750 Monza, Dino instigated a distinct turning point in the design of Ferrari’s sports-racing cars, which, until then, had been largely shorter, higher-waisted, less curvaceous and with tall, wide noses.

Winter, 1953/1954. Having sealed both the year’s Formula 1 and World Sportscar titles, Enzo Ferrari was jubilant but wary. Resting on his laurels was not an option, though in the face of innovative new cars from Lancia, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati, it was clear the technological arms race would be especially hard-fought. Formula 1 was the arena in which his cars would face the biggest challenge, so, Il Commendatore decided instead to throw the kitchen sink at his sports-racing effort to reassert his reputation as the purveyor of the world’s most exquisite motor cars. In addition to the ‘big-banger’ 12-cylinder 375 Plus, Ferrari revealed a new four-cylinder model, the 750 Monza, for the up-to-three-litre category.

Ingegnere Aurelio Lampredi was charged with developing the car, employing a new enlarged three-litre version of the 2.5-litre inline four-cylinder engine that had powered Alberto Ascari to his back-to-back Formula 1 World Championship victories in 1952 and 1953. With its screwed-in cylinder liners, unitary cylinder block and head, and enormous twin Weber carburettors, the ‘750’ engine produced a healthy 250bhp and boasted an abundance of low-end torque. Throw in a forward-thinking lightweight tubular spaceframe, a gearbox mounted at the rear for better weight distribution and, on later cars, coil-spring suspension and disc brakes, and you had a sports-racing car that was agile and powerful but sturdy and straightforward. The perfect recipe for privateer customers of Ferrari’s located in far-flung destinations around the world.

“With its screwed-in cylinder liners, unitary cylinder block and head, and enormous twin Weber carburettors, the ‘750’ engine produced a healthy 250bhp and boasted an abundance of low-end torque.”

The new Ferrari 750 acquired its ‘Monza’ suffix after Mike Hawthorn and Umberto Maglioli won the car’s maiden race, the Gran Premio Supercortemaggiore held at… you guessed it: Monza. Though its competitive career was short, the 750 Monza scored notable victories including the RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod and proved instrumental in Ferrari’s 1954 World Sportscar Championship victory. Just 33 examples were built and they were driven by the era’s most successful drivers right around the world.  

On a more objective level, this is a truly wonderful car to drive. From behind that wide wooden-rimmed steering wheel, cocooned in that cockpit looking out across that long flowing bonnet, the 750 Monza is a car that begs to the driven harder and harder. And that engine… No, it’s not a 12-cylinder. But as a result it has a character all of its own. It’s gruff and noisy and begs to be revved higher and higher, at which point you’re rewarded with more and more power and acceleration.

The curious case of the 1955 12 Hours of Sebring

The Sebring International Raceway – 13 March 1955, 10pm. A sense of confused chaos has fallen over the paddock after the two leading cars in the fifth running of the 12-hour endurance classic were both declared the winner at the chequered flag. It was the Texan oil magnate Allen Guiberson’s striking new white and blue Ferrari 750 Monza, driven by the budding all-American duo of Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby, which crossed the finish line first after an epic drive. But it was the Briggs Cunningham-entered Jaguar D-type of Mike Hawthorn and Phil Walters which was subsequently awarded the victory by the race’s timing officials after a frantic check of their lap charts.

With support from Ferrari’s East Cost concessionaire (and former Le Mans winner) Luigi Chinetti, a disgruntled Guiberson files an appeal with the American Automobile Association (A.A.A.). The paddock certainly deems Hill and Shelby the moral winners of the race and he is absolutely convinced the Jaguar had overtaken his Ferrari under yellow-flag conditions. It will take the A.A.A. almost two weeks to unravel the Guiberson and Cunningham teams’ laps charts and confirm that the D-type did indeed win the race, by the narrowest of margins: just 25 seconds. Sadly, what was a tremendous battle and a genuine fight to the finish was marred by controversy. “An annoying situation for all concerned,” reported Autosport magazine, “but it is pleasant to record that the deciding A.A.A. meeting was entirely amicable, Mr. Guiberson accepting the verdict in true sporting manner.” The outright victory in the Index of Performance Trophy provided a morsel of vindication – regardless of the result, it was an exceptionally promising maiden outing for chassis number 0510 M.

Winning ways

This Ferrari contested two more races in 1955, both in the hands of the future Formula 1 World Champion Phil Hill. The first was the Del Monte Trophy, the headline event for the Pebble Beach Road Races, which were staged on the narrow roads in the pine and cypress forest that surrounds Pebble Beach Lodge. The races ran from 1950 to 1956 and attracted the era’s finest racing names (from America and beyond) and a broad range of predominantly European sports cars.

Hill had won the very first Del Monte Trophy driving a Jaguar XK120 and the 1953 edition with his own Ferrari 250 MM Vignale Spyder. True to form, Hill drove a masterful race with chassis number 0510 M, winning in 1955 with aplomb. The conditions were sodden, which only made his performance on the incredibly dangerous 2.1-mile course even more impressive.

After Pebble Beach, Hill was instructed by Guiberson to take the Ferrari straight to Europe along with the rising American racing star Richie Ginther. The 750 Monza was shipped from New Orleans to Genoa in Italy, the idea being that Hill and Ginther would barnstorm the remainder of the European racing season. Unfortunately, the 1955 Le Mans disaster had put a halt on all motorsport activity and the only European track time the American pair were granted with chassis number 0510 M was at the Aerautodromo in Modena. After a health check at the Ferrari factory, the 750 Monza was returned to Texas.

Guiberson sold the Ferrari to the brothers Hall – older ‘Dick’ and younger ‘Jim’. Founder of the decorated Chaparral Cars equipe, Jim Hall went on to pioneer a raft of technological motorsport innovations, including ground-effect tunnels, adjustable aerodynamic devices, side-mounted radiators and composite monocoque chassis’. Suffice to say his influence is still very much felt in motorsport today. An inductee to the International Motorsport Hall of Fame, Hall boasts a competition résumé that lists successes in virtually every American racing discipline or series.

The Halls had gone to Guiberson’s warehouse in Dallas to look at a Porsche Spyder. But when they discovered the nearby 750 Monza was also available, they soon forgot about the Porsche. Jim had witnessed Phil Hill’s wet-weather masterclass at the Pebble Beach Road Races and promptly persuaded his older brother to buy chassis number 0510 M (Jim was still a student, while Dick had assumed control of the family oil business following the tragic death of their parents in an aircraft accident).

The Halls promptly employed the services of fellow Texan Carroll Shelby, who had by now firmly established himself as a driving force to be reckoned with on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Incidentally, the Halls had also helped finance the opening of Carroll Shelby Sport Cars Inc. in Dallas, a major concessionaire of exotic European motor cars including Rolls-Royces. Shelby also knew the 750 Monza inside and out having partnered with Phil Hill at Sebring the previous year. That paid dividends at the first event of 1956 for this Ferrari: the Del Monte Trophy. Shelby carried on right where Phil Hill left off, winning the prestigious race in decisive fashion. Of the four subsequent events he contested with chassis number 0510 M in 1956, Shelby accrued three outright race victories and one second-placed position. It’s also worth noting that Jim Hall took his very first victory as a racing driver with this Ferrari.

“In this instance, the success Jim Hall enjoyed as custodian of chassis number 0510 M pales in comparison to the fact he kept the car for almost six decades.”

Prior to the 1957 season, this 750 Monza was returned once again to the Ferrari factory in Maranello to have its engine serviced, a full-width windscreen and passenger door added as per the new racing regulations and to be refinished in red. For 1957, driving duties were shared between Jim Hall, who’d joined Carroll Shelby Sport Cars Inc., and Jim Roberts, the dealership’s chief salesman. The following year, Jim Hall advertises chassis number 0510 M for sale. Crucially, he does not find a buyer…

The Chaparral years

In this instance, the success Jim Hall enjoyed as custodian of chassis number 0510 M pales in comparison to the fact he kept the car for almost six decades. After establishing Chaparral Cars in 1963, Hall stored this Ferrari at his equipe’s facility in Midland, Texas. In 1993, the decision was taken to lightly restore the 750 Monza ahead of a planned celebration of Carroll Shelby’s racing career at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. The project was entrusted to Troy Rogers, the former chief mechanic at Chaparral Cars, and involved returning the car to its original white and blue livery.

Following its light restoration and subsequent appearance at Laguna Seca, chassis number 0510 M was exercised occasionally on Hall’s test-track. Crucially, prior to both Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby passing away in 2008 and 2012, respectively, Hall received letters from both detailing their memories of this 750 Monza. Shelby’s is especially entertaining, particularly his recollection of the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1955. “I drove that race with my arm in a cast,” he wrote. “Hal Fenner would go to the races with me and change it to a fiberglass cast and then change it back to a plaster cast after the race so my doctors wouldn't know!” Hall finally parted with chassis number 0510 M in 2016 after 57 years of ownership. He was the only period 1950s Ferrari 750 Monza owner to still retain their car.

A new dawn

The third – and current – custodians of this Ferrari are Patrick Ottis and his wife Carolyn. The owner of the revered US-based Enzo-era Ferrari engine and mechanical restoration workshop, Patrick Ottis holds the honour of being the chief Ferrari judge at the world-famous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Who better, then, to orchestrate the restoration of chassis number 0510 M with a view to using and sharing the car at the wealth of prestigious historic motoring events across the world for which such a car is highly eligible.

Ottis assembled a crack team of trusted specialists and spent two years taking the car back to a bare chassis to rebuild it to the exacting specification of Phil Hill’s 1955 Pebble Beach Road Races entry. The two-year project put just as much emphasis on research as it did restoration itself – over 500 period photos were sourced to ensure maximum accuracy (they’re all in the enormous history file that accompanies the car). Given the remarkably original condition of chassis number 0510 M throughout, the restoration was undertaken with the utmost sympathy for that originality. As such, period techniques were employed, which, though not necessarily time or cost efficient, helped retain the distinct character of the car. You need only glance at the brush marks and slight wave to the finish of the original Scaglietti coachwork to see that.

It's important to note that, with a view to preservation in historic competition, Ottis sourced a second additional period 750 Monza engine, numbered 0538 MD, complete with its rare original Weber carburettors. This engine, which ironically also competed in North America in the mid- to late-1950s, is included in the sale of this 750 Monza, chassis number 0510 M.

Upon completion, chassis number 0510 M was raced by Patrick Ottis’ son Tazio at the 2019 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca. The very next day, this 750 Monza was entered in the world-famous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Contesting the fiercely competitive ‘M-2’ class for Ferrari Competition Cars, the car was scrutinised by the discerning panel of judges. They were suitably impressed – it was awarded the coveted ‘Best in Class’ trophy. For the Ottis family, that could have been mission complete. But they have spent the following years capitalising on this special Ferrari’s extraordinary eligibility, finally fulfilling chassis number 0510 M’s thwarted 1955 plan to compete in Europe. The Goodwood Revival, Grand Prix de Monaco Historique and Le Mans Classic. It’s etched them all into its proverbial bedpost.  

How to summarise the appeal of a collector car with so many strings to its bow? The preserve of the most learned and discerning of Ferrari disciples, the 750 Monza is incredibly rare, drop-dead gorgeous, gruntier than its sultry and diminutive shape would lead you to believe and, perhaps most importantly, eligible. So eligible, in fact, that there are very few historic motoring events on the planet – static or dynamic – whose organisers would not welcome such a car with open arms. But even in the rarefied world of four-cylinder 1950s Ferraris such as the 750 Monza, there is still a pecking order and are still cars that distinguish themselves from their elusive counterparts. We’ve no doubt chassis number 0510 M is one of the very best examples extant.

“This Ferrari 750 Monza is so eligible that there are very few historic motoring events on the planet – static or dynamic – whose organisers would not welcome such a car with open arms.”

Of course, this particular 750 Monza’s successful US period competition history in the hands of three of America’s most decorated motorsport exports, Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby and Jim Hall, is a real treat. But its this Ferrari’s subsequent sheltered story in the custody of Jim Hall which really makes it stand out, both from provenance and conditions perspectives. Patrick Ottis’ fastidious yet mindful restoration served to honour the care Hall bestowed upon his Ferrari for over five decades. And, of course, preserve it for its exciting future chapter – chapters you could help to write. Your interest will no doubt be piqued when we tell you that this 750 Monza has already been accepted into the 2026 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Believe us when we say opportunities such as chassis number 0510 M are very few and far between.